Nestlé announced that it is investing to help bring regenerative agriculture practices to wheat farms within its DIGIORNO® supply chain, with the goal of improving soil, using less water, energy and fertilizer, and helping reduce the impacts of climate change. The initiative will bring regenerative agriculture practices to over 100,000 acres of farmland—nearly double the amount of acres needed to grow the amount of wheat used in DIGIORNO pizza. The work will help the company accelerate the transition to regenerative agriculture in its supply chain.
Nearly two-thirds of Nestlé’s global greenhouse gas emissions come from sourcing ingredients, which is rooted in agriculture. As part of its detailed roadmap to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, the company aims to source 20% of its key ingredients through regenerative agricultural methods by 2025 and 50% of its key ingredients by 2030.
“At Nestlé our aim is to help leave the world better than we found it, and as the world’s largest food and beverage company, we have a tremendous opportunity to help create a regenerative, healthy food system while also working with the local farming communities that employ it,” said Steve Presley, CEO, Nestlé Zone North America. “To do this we need to find solutions that create shared value throughout the ecosystem – value for us, value for farmers, value for our consumers, and value for the planet. This investment in wheat producers is just one example of how we are bringing this commitment to life across our supply chain.”
Through partnerships with ADM and Ardent Mills—two primary wheat flour suppliers for DIGIORNO—Nestlé’s investment will benefit wheat farms across Kansas, North Dakota, Indiana, and Missouri. The initiative aims to help wheat farmers in the program employ regenerative agriculture practices in their fields through a combination of financial and technical resources. These practices can include planting cover crops, eliminating or reducing tillage, and reducing the use of pesticides, which can help improve soil health and soil fertility, and protect water resources and enhance biodiversity.
ADM recently measured some outcomes of farmers who have implemented regenerative agriculture methods and reported that over half of the wheat farms in the program used cover crops or living roots in 2022, which helped to sequester more than 3,800 metric tonnes of CO2e—that’s equivalent to taking nearly 850 gas-powered cars off the road for one year. Scott Stroberg of Stroberg Farm in Hutchinson, Kansas, who has been growing wheat for ADM over the last decade, has implemented regenerative agriculture practices on his farm, including replacing synthetic fertilizers with natural alternatives, and is now introducing cover crops with the support of ADM and Nestlé.
Nestlé is also working across its tomato supply chain in the US to support the verification of regenerative agriculture practices, with the aim of sourcing tomatoes grown for its ingredients through these methods in the coming years.
The company is working with Leading Harvest, a nonprofit that monitors and audits farming methods through their Farmland Management Standard, to certify the farming practices of Nestlé’s tomato suppliers. The Standard certifies practices across 13 key principles such as soil health, protection of water resources, and conservation of biodiversity.
Nestlé’s efforts in its US wheat and tomato supply chains build on the company’s recent progress implementing regenerative agriculture practices and net zero farming initiatives on a variety of farms that make ingredients for brands including Carnation®, Carnation Breakfast Essentials®, Libby’s®, and Purina®.
